WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Two U.S. air marshals fled Brazil after being taken into custody following their arrest of a Brazilian judge's wife on a flight to Rio de Janeiro, CNN reports.
Sources told the U.S. news network the agents' passports were confiscated by Brazilian authorities but they got out of the country using alternate travel documents rather than face what they considered trumped-up charges.
The Oct. 1 incident happened on Continental Flight 128 from Houston to Rio de Janeiro, CNN reported Thursday.
The episode has affected air marshal operations on flights to Brazil, officials said. Air marshals question Brazil's willingness to support future law enforcement actions by U.S. officials on international flights.
A source told CNN the plane's crew asked the air marshals to intervene when a female passenger who appeared to be intoxicated tried to serve herself drinks from the plane's galley. The woman allegedly put up a fight and bit one of the agents. She was handcuffed and placed under arrest.
Once on the ground in Brazil, the agents started to turn the woman over to local authorities only to be brought before a federal judge and charged with misdemeanor counts of assault, sources said. The air marshals departed the country on a commercial flight the same day.
